Evans WRC win would 'put rallying back on map'

Elfyn Evans could finally win his first World Rally Championship (WRC) title this week, a victory that would "put rallying back on the map" according to one of a handful of previous British world-success stories in the sport.

Four-time runner-up Evans leads Sebastien Ogier by three points going into Rally Saudi Arabia (25-29 November), a brand new event to conclude a 14-race calendar.

If the 36-year-old Welshman can fend off the challenge of his Toyota team-mate he will become only the third British WRC champion after Scotland's Colin McRae in 1995 and England's Richard Burns in 2001.

"Rallying has been kept down a little bit because they've not really had many people to shout about," said Nicky Grist, a former co-driver with McRae who also partnered Juha Kankkunen to the Finn's fourth WRC title in 1993.

"If Elfyn wins the world championship that is going to change things for sure and we'll start getting rallying back on the map and into the tabloids, that's what it deserves."

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin have led for most of the 2025 season but many see eight-time champion Ogier as favourite to win his first title in four years after adopting a part-time schedule.

The 41-year-old Frenchman has sat out three of this year's rallies, winning six of the 10 he has started.

Fellow Yaris driver Evans won rounds two and three when Ogier was absent, but it is his consistency, and sometimes cautious outlook, that has seen him lead the championship for much of the season.

However, to finally win the ultimate prize Evans may need to change his approach for a winner takes all showdown.

"Most definitely," believes Grist.

"You're in a sport where you can't be conservative and with rallying you've got all the dangers that lay at the side of the road... but from Elfyn's point of view, he can't think too much about that.

"If he crashes trying, that's probably better than being beaten in many ways. I'm sure he's up for it, he has shown tremendous resilience the whole year, having led virtually the whole year, to do what he's done to this point you have got to commend him for, but it can all come to nothing unless he beats Ogier in Saudi Arabia."

Ogier and Evans are not the only drivers who can clinch the title in the Jeddah-based final event. A third Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera is 24 points behind the Welshman and, in theory, the Finn could still snatch his own dramatic third world crown.

So how do WRC points work?

The maximum haul for any driver at each rally is 35. The leader after the first three days of a rally - normally a Saturday but Friday in this round as the Saudi event is running a day ahead of the usual schedule - collects 25 points. The runner-up receives only 17, with 15 for third and lesser points for the remainder of the top 10.

Two sets of bonus five, four, three, two and one points are available; for the fastest drivers over all the final-day stages, and also for the concluding 'Power Stage'.

Evans can afford to drop no more than two points to Ogier who would win the title on rally victories should they tie on points.

"It's pretty much winner take all," says motorsport journalist Mark James.

"There's a slight complication in that there are extra points to be had at the end of the rally but basically whoever finishes ahead takes the title so in that regard it's a very simple job [for Evans], beat Ogier."

Like many rally drivers Dolgellau-born Evans has pedigree.

"Elfyn's one of those characters in rallying who came to it because of his dad," explains James.

"His dad, Gwyndaf, was British champion, so there are parallels with the McRae family. Jimmy McRae, British champion, [son] Colin, British champion [and Colin's brother] Alistair, British champion.

"For Elfyn growing up rallying was in the family, so he started driving like so many other young rally fans around the house or the garden or the farm or whatever in a tractor, started competing, ups and downs, won a couple of small championships, became British champion, moved up to the world stage, won a scholarship with M-Sport.

"He worked with them for a year learning how to develop cars - which I think really stood him in good stead for understanding how a rally car works and what you can do to it - moved to Toyota and has been there or thereabouts ever since in terms of the world title."

Having won his first WRC event at 2017's Wales Rally GB, Evans joined Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2020, narrowly missing out on the title in his first season with the Japanese team.

Leading the championship heading into the final round at Monza, a crash on treacherous snow-covered roads handed the title to team-mate Ogier.

He would be runner-up again to the Frenchman 12 months later and then finished second behind Rovapera in 2023 and to Hyundai's Belgian driver Thierry Neuville one year ago.

"He's not getting any younger, you've got young drivers kind of snapping at his heels," points out James.

"You've got Oliver Solberg coming up who won in Estonia this year. He's going to be driving for the same team next year. So Elfyn really must be feeling if I don't do it this year, when am I going to do it?

"Age isn't such a factor I don't think as it would be for say a Formula One driver. But yes, the clock is ticking for Elfyn."

Ogier is defintely in the conversation as the greatest all-time rally driver.

Born in Gap in the Hautes-Alpes region of eastern France, he won his first WRC title in 2013. Were he to take victory in this year's championship he would equal Sebastien Loeb's all-time record of nine world crowns.

In all Ogier has won 66 rallies, most recently triumphing with co-driver Vincent Landais at Rally Japan earlier this month.

He is an exceptional and intelligent driver who particularly thrives on gravel surfaces which could prove an advantage this weekend.

In contrast to Ogier, who began his career relatively late aged 23, Rovanpera was already a world champion at 22.

The Finn became the youngest ever WRC winner in 2022 breaking the record previously held by Britain's McCrae, and became a back-to-back champion 12 months later.

Having competed part-time in 2024 Rovanpera, now 25, has announced he will quit rallying at the end of this season to pursue a career in circuit racing.

As you would expect for a driver who came to people's attention when - aged just 8 - a video of him drifting a rally car through snowy forests went viral, Rovanpera is an ice-cool driver with a reputation for the ability to read the most difficult road conditions.

Not as much as the teams and drivers would like.

It is a brand new event so they face 17 special stages and more than 300 competitive kilometres with no previous WRC data to lean on.

There are plenty of gravel roads flanked by rocks, which may not help Evans who will take the road first as championship leader. Sweeping away the loose gravel ahead of other drivers was something he found challenging at rallies in Portugal, Sardinia and Greece earlier in the year.

"It's a bit of an unknown in that there are events in the Middle East, there is a Middle East rally championship so some of the drivers may have competed out there in the past," says journalist James.

"It's a bit of the unknown, they will get a chance obviously to recce the stages where they write their pace notes so they'll get an idea of the kind of stages that they'll be on.

"But it's new for everybody so it is a great leveller, and unfortunately maybe Ogier's experience will carry him to the title which would be a crying shame for Elfyn."